System for using attributes to deploy demand response resources

ABSTRACT

A system for using attributes to deploy demand response resources. A service provider may provide energy to customers. The provider may via interactions modify consumption of the energy by the customers. Customers that participate in these interactions may be regarded as demand response resources. Interactions may incorporate demand response signals sent to the resources at their respective facilities. Each resource may have a demand response client which has an association with a customer account in a demand response management system of the provider. The association may be regarded as a binding of the demand response client. The binding may involve inputting an attribute of the demand response client, which can be correlated to the customer account. The attribute may be, for example, a location of the demand response client. Such attribute may be used for the association of the demand response client with a proper customer account.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/153,251, filed Jun. 3, 2011, entitled “A System for Using Attributesto Deploy Demand Response Resources”, which is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/019,943, filed Feb. 02, 2011, andentitled “Demand Response Management System”, which claims the benefitof U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/301,123, filed Feb. 03,2010, and entitled “Demand Response Management System”. U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/153,251, filed Jun. 3, 2011, is herebyincorporated by reference. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/019,943,filed Feb. 02, 2011, is hereby incorporated by reference. U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 61/301,123, filed Feb. 03, 2010, ishereby incorporated by reference.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/153,251, filed Jun. 3, 2011, entitled “A System for Using Attributesto Deploy Demand Response Resources”, which is a continuation-in-part ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/834,841, filed Jul. 12, 2010, andentitled “A System for Providing Demand Response Services”, which claimsthe benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/271,084, filedJul. 17, 2009. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/834,841, filed Jul.12, 2010, is hereby incorporated by reference. U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/271,084, filed Jul. 17, 2009, is hereby incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure pertains to utility resources and particularly toassessment and distribution of the resources. More particularly, thedisclosure pertains to beneficial management of resources and theirloads.

SUMMARY

The disclosure reveals a system for using attributes to deploy demandresponse resources. A service provider may provide energy to customers.The provider may via interactions modify consumption of the energy bythe customers. Customers that participate in these interactions may beregarded as demand response resources. Interactions may incorporatedemand response signals sent to the resources at their respectivefacilities. Each resource may have a demand response client which has anassociation with a customer account in a demand response managementsystem of the provider. The association may be regarded as a binding ofthe demand response client. The binding may involve inputting anattribute of the demand response client, which can be correlated to thecustomer account. The attribute may be, for example, a location of thedemand response client. Such attribute may be used for the associationof the demand response client with a proper customer account.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a demand response system for using attributes ofa demand response client for deploying demand response resources; and

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a demand response resource deployment approach.

DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a demand response system. Demand response (DR)may refer to interactions between one or more electric service providers18, such as utilities and independent system operators (ISO's), andtheir customers at one or more facilities 14 for modifying theircustomers' electricity consumption (i.e., load profile). Electricity isjust one example, among others, of an energy product provided forconsumption by customers. The customers that participate in theseinteractions may be referred to as DR resources 19.

The interactions between a service provider 18 and its DR resources 19may entail the service provider 18 using a demand response managementsystem (DRMS) 13 to send a message (referred to as a “DR signal”) to aDR resource 19 at a customer facility 14. The DR signal may be deliveredusing a communications channel 17 such as the Internet, paging, and soforth. In order for the DR resource 19 to receive the DR signal, the DRresource 19 should have some sort of equipment (referred to as DR client12) installed that is capable of communicating with the serviceprovider's DRMS 13 using the communications channel 17.

One of the costly issues in deploying a DR client 12 may be the time andeffort involved with associating the DR client 12 with a particularcustomer account within the service provider's DRMS 13. This associationmay be referred to as “binding” the DR client 12. Binding the DR client12 may be important because binding allows the service provider 18 tosend DR signals to a DR resource 19 that are specific to that DRresource 19.

Binding may entail inputting some attribute of the DR client 12 into theDRMS 13 that would allow sent DR signals to be routed to the DR client12. A key is to find a set of one or more attributes which can be easilycorrelated to a customer account in the DRMS 13 in order to reducemanual data entry and thus save costs for time and effort. The presentapproach may use, for example, location attributes of DR client 12 tocreate the binding. The approach, with respect to a binding issue, mayallow an easy-to-generate attribute of the DR client 12 (e.g., itslocation) to be used to associate the DR client 12 with the propercustomer account in the DRMS 13.

When a DR client 12 is deployed in the field, it is possible to use adevice that determines global positioning system (GPS) coordinates ofthe DR client 12. These coordinates may then be easily input and storedinto the DR client 12 device itself in an automated fashion without aneed for a manual data entry. The DR client 12 may then contact the DRMS13 and send its location information, in addition to other information,to its network communications address. Customer accounts in the DRMS 13may have attributes, such as an address and so on, that allow theircustomer locations to be known. Thus, when a DR client 12 contacts theDRMS 13 with its location, it may be automatically correlated to anexisting customer account.

It is recognized that there may be some ambiguity between GPS locationdetermined by an installer 11 and a customer's account. Therefore, analternative to the procedure indicated herein may be to allow aninstallation technician (installer) 11 resolve those ambiguities byconfirming the binding at the customer's site 14. This may beaccomplished by presenting alternatives to the installer 11 to choosefrom or perhaps to allow some sort of browser-based internet applicationto be used. While the use of these techniques may add an extra burden onthe installer 11, they might only be needed in a limited number of casesand may also insure that the correct binding is over a more manual dataentry process.

The system as shown in FIG. 1 may incorporate, among other items, theservice provider 18, the DRMS 13, the customer facility 14, the demandresource 19, the DR client 12, communications channel 17, some sort ofinstallation or installer device (ID) 15 (used by an installer 11 of theequipment), and a communications technique 16. The following steps maybe used to deploy the DR client 12: 1) The installation device 15 may beused by the installer 11 to automatically determine a current locationof the DR client 12 using some sort of location-based technology such asa GPS; 2) Once the location is determined, this location may be inputinto the DR client 12 using any of a number of low cost communicationtechniques 16 incorporating a USB connection, Bluetooth, IR, and/or thelike; 3) Once the location is entered into the DR client 12, then the DRclient 12 may then contact the DRMS 13 via the communication channel 17and send both its current location and its network address to the DRMS13; and 4) The DRMS 13 may use the location of the DR client 12 toassociate it with a specific customer account.

It may noted that in support of a use case where there are someambiguities between the location of the installer 11 and the customer'saccount, the installation device 15 may contain a customer database (DB)that would allow the installer 11 to select a customer account from alimited set of customer accounts to bind to the DR client 12. Thus, thebinding may be performed at the customer site 14 as opposed to at theDRMS 13.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of a demand response resource deploymentapproach. The approach may incorporate providing 21 a service providerhaving a demand response management system, providing 22 a customerfacility having a demand response resource, providing 23 power from theservice provider to the demand response resource, interacting 24 theservice provider with the demand response resource so as to modify powerconsumption by the demand response resource, providing 25 an attributeof a demand response resource to the demand response management system,and using 26 the demand response management system to correlate theattribute with a customer account and send a demand response signal to acustomer as needed.

The approach may also incorporate binding 27 a demand response client.The demand response resource may incorporate the demand response client.The binding 27 the demand response client may permit the serviceprovider to send demand response signals to the demand response resourcewhich are specifically routed to that demand response resource.

The approach may also incorporate generating 28 a location of thecustomer facility from a device that determines geographical coordinatesof the customer facility, and inputting 29 the location incorporatingthe geographical coordinates into the demand response client. Theapproach may additionally incorporate automatically correlating 30 thelocation to a customer at the demand response management system.

An application which is relevant to the present application is U.S.patent application Ser. No. 13/019,943, filed Feb. 02, 2011, andentitled “A Demand Response Management System”, which claims the benefitof U.S. Patent Provisional Patent Application No. 61/301,123, filed Feb.03, 2010, and entitled “Demand Response Management System”. U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/019,943, filed Feb. 02, 2011, is herebyincorporated by reference. U.S. Patent Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/301,123, filed Feb. 03, 2010, hereby incorporated by reference.

An application which is relevant to the present application is U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/834,841, filed Jul. 12, 2010, andentitled “A System for Providing Demand Response Services”, which claimsthe benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/271,084, filedJul. 17, 2009. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/834,841, filed Jul.12, 2010, is hereby incorporated by reference. U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 61/271,084, filed Jul. 17, 2009, is hereby incorporatedby reference.

An application which is relevant to the present application is U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/245,560, filed Oct. 03, 2008, andentitled “Critical Resource Notification System and Interface Device”,which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.60/977,909, filed Oct. 5, 2007. U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/245,560, filed Oct. 03, 2008, is hereby incorporated by reference.U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/977,909, filed Oct. 5, 2007,is hereby incorporated by reference.

In the present specification, some of the matter may be of ahypothetical or prophetic nature although stated in another manner ortense.

Although the present system and/or approach has been described withrespect to at least one illustrative example, many variations andmodifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art uponreading the specification. It is therefore the intention that theappended claims be interpreted as broadly as possible in view of theprior art to include all such variations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A demand response system for using an attributeto deploy a demand response resource, comprising: a service provider;and a demand response resource; and wherein: the service providercomprises a demand response management system; the demand responseresource comprises a demand response client; the demand response clientcan communicate an attribute to the demand response management system;and the demand response management system can correlate the attribute toa customer.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein correlating the attributeby the demand response management system to a customer comprises bindingthe demand response client.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein thebinding entails inputting an attribute of a demand response client topermit the demand response signal being sent to be routed to the demandresponse client.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein: the attributecomprises a location; and the location is determined by a globalpositioning system device located at the demand response client.
 5. Ademand response system comprising: a service provider; a customerfacility; and a communications channel connected to the service providerand the customer facility; and wherein: the service provider identifiesthe customer facility by an attribute from the customer facility; andthe attribute comprises a location.
 6. The system of claim 5, whereinthe location is determined by a global positioning system device locatedat the customer facility.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein: the serviceprovider comprises a demand response management system; the customerfacility comprises a demand response resource; and wherein the attributeis provided from the demand response resource to the demand responsemanagement system.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein: the location is ofthe demand response resource; and the location is sent from the demandresponse resource to the demand response management system.
 9. Thesystem of claim 7, wherein: the attribute is associated with informationin a customer account; and a relationship of the attribute with theinformation creates a binding of the demand response resource with acustomer account by the demand response management system.
 10. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein the binding permits the service provider tosend demand response signals to the demand response resource which arespecific to the demand response resource.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the demand response management system correlates the locationfrom the demand response resource with information in the customeraccount to provide an association of the demand response resource withthe customer account.
 12. The system of claim 5, further comprising: aninstallation device situated at the customer facility; and wherein: thecustomer facility comprises a demand response resource; and theinstallation device determines the location.
 13. The system of claim 12,wherein: the installation device comprises a customer database; and acustomer account is selected from the customer database to bind thedemand response resource at the customer facility.
 14. The system ofclaim 7, wherein: the demand response resource comprises a demandresponse client; an association of the demand response client with acustomer account is a binding of the demand response client; and thebinding permits a service provider to send demand response signalsspecifically for the demand response client.
 15. The system of claim 14,wherein: binding comprises inputting the attribute of the demandresponse client into the demand response management system to allowdemand response signals to be routed to the demand response client; andthe attribute may be correlated to a customer account.
 16. The system ofclaim 14, wherein: the customer account has an address; and the locationmay be correlated with the address.
 17. The system of claim 14, furthercomprising: an installation device situated at the customer facility;and wherein: the installation device determines the location of thedemand response client and consequently the demand response resource;the installation device comprises a customer database; and the customeraccount is selected from the customer database to bind the demandresponse resource at the customer facility.
 18. A demand responseresource deployment method comprising: providing a service providercomprising a demand response management system; providing a customerfacility comprising a demand response resource; providing power from theservice provider to the demand response resource; interacting theservice provider with the demand response resource so as to modify powerconsumption by the demand response resource; providing an attribute of ademand response resource to the demand response management system; andusing the demand response management system to correlate the attributewith a customer account and send a demand response signal to a customeras needed; and wherein: the attribute comprises a location; and thelocation of the customer facility is generated from a device thatdetermines geographical coordinates of the customer facility.
 19. Themethod of claim 18, wherein the location is automatically correlated toa customer at the demand response management system.
 20. The method ofclaim 18, further comprising: binding a demand response client; andwherein: the demand response resource comprises the demand responseclient; and binding the demand response client permits the serviceprovider to send demand response signals to the demand response resourcewhich are specifically routed to that demand response resource.